Homestead Survival

<Dungeon: The Royal Crypts of Karzun, Floor 1, A+ -- S->
[Theo and Julia]

As they approached the intersection, they looked down the hallway that the Dragon Wraith had come from.

"So," Theo said, "not that I am complaining, but if we run into one of those Dragon Wraiths, what the fuck do we do?"

"Umm, run, I think," Julia said. "Maybe I should set up a safe zone of sorts every so often with Ward. But other than that, I have no idea."

"I think that for anything level six or below, we fight. Level seven we feel it out, and eight or above we haul ass unless its not an option." Theo said, "And if we level up, then we can readjust. Sound good?"

Julia nodded, looking left, right, and straight ahead. "Sounds good. Where should we go?"

"I say we go check out where the Patriarch is heading back to," Theo said, then had a thoughtful moment. "Can you lay down Ward runes in the shape of an arrow pointing towards the Portal? That way, if we have to run, we can follow the arrows."

"I can, but they only last a couple of days, so if we spend the whole fourteen days here, they will be gone," Julia said.

"That's fine. I just want something for now that we can follow with. Hopefully, we can find something to map with." Theo said and turned right, walking towards where the patriarch and the younger dragon had disappeared to.

As they walked, keeping quiet and being attentive for any monsters, Theo and Julia took in the splendor that surrounded them. Sweeping arches held up the ceiling a hundred or more feet above them. These were supported by massive columns. Each of these looked to the two humans like a work of art with a dragon's wing or tail sculpted to wrap around it. After a quick inspection, they realized just how valuable this place must be to the Dragons.

"This is weird," Theo said.

"No, this place is holy. I mean, he did say it was their honored dead." Julia responded.

"No, I mean this is a dungeon. So how is it made of something that is explicitly immune to Dungeon Control, which I can only imagine is a skill that Dungeons have?"

Julia paused and thought for a moment, shrugging. "Good question."

They continued walking for several hundred feet, the ever-present dim light revealing another intersection. Theo looked at Julia. "Welp, right or straight?"

She placed an arrow of glowing Ward runes on the floor pointing the way they had come from. Then she looked around. "Let's keep going straight, and then we can come look at this hallway."

Theo nodded and they continued forward. After a few hundred more feet, they heard scratching sounds.

Theo listened closely. Then, he raised the Master Tool, shifting it to take on the bearded axe form that he usually kept it in. Julia heard the skittering scratches as well and dropped a double circle of Ward runes around the two of them. From the shadows emerged three border collier-sized scale-covered rats. The floating text accompanied them.

{Scale Rat, Level 05, S-}
{Scale Rat, Level 04, A+}
{Scale Rat, Level 04, A+}

"Well shit. This might be tough." Theo said, watching one of the Level four rats rush the Ward circle. The circle repulsed the rat, but one of the runes on the floor disappeared. "Alright, focus on keeping your Rune circle up and using your Glimmer Branch. Heal me if you need to, I guess, but if we can get away with using Stanch only, then I think we should save the healing charges."

"Okay," Julia said, sending an attack at the Level Five Scale Rat with her branch. "At least it seems to do more than it did to the Mana Leeches."

Theo was about to respond when he noticed one of the Level four rats preparing to leap again, so he stepped forward and slammed his fist into the rat, using his Identify skill as he took a tail lash that left a nasty welt across his cheek. He stepped back into the circle, reading what the identification said.

"Well, let's stomp these things out then," Julia said when Theo was done reading what had been revealed to him.

Theo nodded and changed his Master Tool into a long-handled, two-and-a-half-pound sledgehammer. Then he took a breath and stepped out into the line of the Scale Rats. Immediately, he was beset on two sides by the two level fours. He ignored the one on his left, focusing on the one on the right. The thrumming power of Julia's Retaliate rushed through Theo every time one of the rats struck him. He used Strike on the rat, and it merged with a charge of Retaliate, cutting the tip of the rightmost rat's nose off.

The rat whined and backed off. It lashed out in a medium-range attack with its scale-covered tail. Theo responded by lunging forward and slamming the sledgehammer down in a long arc. The rat's head imploded in a sickening crunch.

That was the moment that the level five rat lunged in and nipped at the back of Theo's knee with great speed. Theo managed to roll backwards into the circle of runes. The body of the dead Scale Rat dissolved in Blue and Purple sparks, leaving a small pile of loot. Julia used Stanch on Theo, and the blood stopped flowing from his wounds.

"You all good?" She asked the big man who was letting her handle the defense with Ward while he took the time to withdraw his water skin and take a drink.

"That Level five is very fast and going for weak points. So yeah, but I am not happy with how smart this thing seems. I am also mildly tempted to kill the Level four and try and claim the Level five." Theo said, replacing the water skin in one of his quick access slots rather than his normal storage.

"Wouldn't that kind of put us on a shit list with the dragons?" Julia said, tossing several attacks at the Level Four and replacing three runes.

"That's kind of what I thought. So anyways, let's smash the rat." Theo said standing up again, and putting his Dagger into one of his Quick Access slots, he shifted the Master Tool into an absolutely massive twenty pound sledge hammer.

"Oh, you meant that literally," Julia said, tossing a few more attacks at the Level Four.

Theo was about to respond when the last attack that Julia had fired at the Level four hit, and the rat whimpered and dropped to the floor. It's body dissolving into its own pile of loot. Theo nodded. "Good work. Now lets get this fucker."

Theo stepped out of the circle, and the level five rat glared at him. Then it unleashed a strange squeak and lunged at him, only to get stopped midair by the circle of Ward runes that had appeared around it. Julia smiled. "Took me a minute, but I finally figured out another way to use this skill. Now he can't run."

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Theo smiled. "Good work!"

Then, Julia watched as every muscle in Theo's broad shoulders and back seemed to bunch up and then ripple in unison, propelling the massive sledgehammer faster than it had any right to go, straight into the back of the Scale Rat. The sickening crunch was the only signal they needed that the fight was over. But the dissolution of the body in blue and purple sparks was nice, as was the level-up notification.

[Theo]
"Congratulations, Theo, you have leveled up. As a part of your System Reward for staying in a High Mana zone, the rewards for leveling up have been increased until level 5. As a reward for leveling up, you will be granted a skill and allowed to pick one skill to upgrade. This is in addition to the class-based level-up rewards and your Racial level-up rewards. Congratulations once again."

>Private Message: You have been rewarded with the skill 'Taunt. '>Private Message: Please select one skill to upgrade.

Theo suddenly knew how and what Taunt did. He smiled to himself, knowing it would come in handy. He quickly went over his skills, wondering what to upgrade.

Automatically, he dismissed Claim, Farming, Hand of Gold, Process, and Taunt.

He knew that he should upgrade either Strike or Defender. But his heart wanted him to upgrade Identify or Dimensional Storage. With a heavy sigh, he dismissed both of the ones he wanted and thought about Strike and Defender.

"Defender is probably the reason that I am able to just tank so much of this damage. That and Stanch from Julia. But I wonder if it will be worth it. On the other hand, Strike just outright increases my damage. That being said, a lot of my damage comes from Julia. She does A lot of damage with Retaliate; I just need to be able to take it. Welp, I guess that settles it." Theo selected Defender.

>Private Message: Skill 'Defender' Has been upgraded to Rank A from Rank A -. Skill Damage Reduction increased.
>Private Message: Bonus Stats granted by Dungeon - 2 STR, 2 CON
>Private Message: Level Up process complete.

[Julia]
"Congratulations, Julia, you have leveled up. As a part of your System Reward for staying in a High Mana zone, the rewards for leveling up have been increased until level 5. As a reward for leveling up, you will be granted a skill and allowed to pick one skill to upgrade; the skill can not be Bond. This is in addition to the class-based level-up rewards and your Racial level-up rewards. Congratulations once again."

>Private Message: You have been granted the skill 'Warmth of the Hearth' as a reward.
>Private Message: Please select one skill to upgrade.

Julia knew what Warmth of the Hearth did and was very happy at the skill. "It really is having me lean into a support role, but I guess that is what I would do anyways. It doesn't hurt that Theo is willing to step into combat for me."

She shook her head and focused on what skill to select. She dismissed most of them, focusing on Ward, Retaliate, and Warmth of the Hearth. After a quick thought, she dismissed Ward, knowing that it would be getting plenty of love from her in the future. Instead, she debated the other two.

"Retaliate is a lot of our damage. So that is definitely a good call. But I feel like this new skill has the potential to do a lot more than it says." Julia debated silently for a moment and then selected Retaliate as it really did do a lot of their damage.

>Private Message: Skill 'Retaliate' Has been upgraded to Rank A+ from Rank A.
>Private Message: Bonus Stats granted by Dungeon - 2 INT, 1 CHA, 1 META
>Private Message: Level Up process complete.

[Theo and Julia]

Both Theo and Julia looked at each other. Julia spoke first, "Did you get bonus stats?"

"I did, two Strength and two Constitution."

"Oh, weird," Julia said, "I got two Intelligence, one Charisma, and one Meta."

"Oh, that's good though, right?" Theo asked, "That means it is valuable to you and won't give you stats you won't use."

"True," Julia said with a shrug. "So what skill did you get?"

"I got Taunt." Theo said, and then read off its effects, "Allows the user to force nearby monsters to attack him/her.
Current Range of fifteen feet. It is also Bond Enhanced. It says that Anything attacking Bond when this skill is triggered will be affected regardless of Range."

"That is nice. Don't you have a defender skill that gives you damage reduction that will work nicely with that?" Julia asked.

"Yes, and ironically, that is what I chose to improve. It now blocks a flat ten percent for everyone. It blocks twenty percent when I am defending you." He said. "So what did you get?"

"Got special type skill called Warmth of the Hearth." Julia said with a smile, "It says, The user radiates a soothing warmth in a twelve-foot radius circle around them. Those in this circle have increased healing and are harder to influence mentally. Using this skill in an active fashion reduces the radius of effect to zero and instead heals one target at an even higher rate."

"That is incredibly useful, especially for how we have been fighting," Theo said.

"Well, it's bond enhanced too," Julia said, then read off the bond-enhanced effect. "This skill affects the Bonded Pair at a distance of sixty feet regardless of sight, walls, and other obstructions."

"So it gives us a little more room to work with." Theo said, smiling at Julia, "Good to know."

"Here, let me try the active on you," Julia said, using mental control to switch the skill from passive to active.

Theo began to sweat as the pleasant warmth he had been feeling suddenly turned up several degrees. He felt one of his cuts closing. "It gets a little warm, but I can literally feel my wounds closing."

"Oh, good," Julia said, and they sat there for a minute until her skill automatically switched back to passive. "I guess you are all healed."

"I do feel much better," Theo said, rubbing at the back of his knee where the Level Five had bitten him. "And I can not feel any other damage. That skill is great."

"Okay, now what did we get?" Julia asked, excited.

"Let's look." Theo gathered all of the goods and then split the coinage that had dropped. "First of all, we each got one gold and twenty-seven silver."

"Okay, good to start building back up our monies," Julia said, putting her share in her Hand of Gold.

"Amen, sister," Theo said, tucking his coin away. "Now onto the loot, loot."

"Loot! Loot!" Julia said quietly to herself. Theo glanced at her and chuckled. Julia felt her cheeks flush.

"Alright, so." Theo counted out duplicates as he pawed through the pile of loot. "One... Two... Three Scale Rat hides. One... Two... Sets of Scale Rat Fangs. One Vial of Drake-Type Mucus. And last, for the kind of regular stuff, is One... Two Crystalized Blood Clots."

"What are they for? Potions?" Julia asked, a look of curious disgust crossing her face.

"Not a clue, but we have two more items that, based on looks alone, I called not normal. So, let's see the names." Theo picked up the first item and read its name. "One Flesh-Warped Core. And lastly, One Dungeon Invader Tag."

They looked at the two items. In Theo's right hand was a perfectly spherical orb that looked as if it would ooze right through his fingers. In his left hand was a purple crystal in the shape of a paper hang tag. On it was a large symbol that they instinctively knew meant 'Invader.'

Julia was quite taken with the Invader tag. So she reached out to identify it.

Theo identified it, and they both looked at each other. "I think we save this."

"Agreed," Julia said. "Want me to hold onto it, or do you want to put it in the Dimensional storage?"

"Your call," Theo said with a shrug.

"Why don't you put the tag in your Dimensional storage? I will take the rest in my pouch, and then we can identify the Core and see what we want to do with it." Julia said, and Theo nodded.

"Okay, let's identify the core first," Theo said and used the skill.

"So this thing was descended directly from the original hive that the plague guy made?" Julia asked after identifying it herself.

"I guess," Theo said. "I mean it goes to show how much of a pain in the ass they are if the original hive still has progeny."

"True, alright, I feel like this is valuable. Go ahead and toss it in your dimensional storage as well."

"Will do," Theo said and began channeling his skill. When the cube appeared, he placed the two items inside and then dismissed the cube early. "Alright, now shall we continue?"

"Okay," Julia said, taking two beef sticks out of her pouch and handing one to Theo. They began to work their way down the massive corridor.

Almost half an hour later, they were staring up at two massive doors made entirely of what appeared to be gold. Julia reached out to touch it, and a field of purple energy stopped her. A simple message was all they received when they tried to touch the door.

>Private Message: This area is outside the bounds of the Dungeon and, therefore, off limits during this Dungeon run.

"Welp, now we gotta go back and go down the side hall, right?" Theo asked.

"I think so, so let's get rolling," Julia said, turning and walking away.

As they wandered down the hall, back to the three-way intersection they had crossed earlier, Theo wondered if he would be okay in what was essentially a massive cave for fourteen days.